Some of you already know that my SO started to work in Hazyview in August, while I have to wait around JHB till December for the schools to close, before I can move down there as well.

So, this coming weekend will be the first time we can go to Hazyview to visit.... and guess what, there will be day-trips from Hazyview

So I thought of starting a TR with all our forthcoming day-trips from Hazyview. We will not be entering through the same gate every time, but luckily there is gates from Orpen to Croc Bridge from which we can choose.

In a few hours' time, the nose of my car will be pointing towards Hazyview... it is so exciting. To be in Kruger the next two days as well as seeing my SO again after five weeks... I don't know what I'm more excited about

Hallo, we're back safely. What an amazing weekend. Went in for two days and on day 1(Friday) I thought the game decided to play hide and seek, and the next day(Saturday) we were driving from one lion sighting to another... Will load pics later today or tomorrow

Friday 24 September. Left Hazyview at 04:45 and drove to Phabeni gate. Everybody told me to book in advance, but I decided to take a chance and see what happens. Luck was on my side, we were the 3rd car from the front. Within 10 minutes, there were about 20 cars behind us.

The new gate-system at Phabeni is great, you stay in your car and go through the gate. While waiting for the gate to open some people who were way back in the queue walked to the front of the gate with their forms so they can run to the office to be first at reception. It was so funny, when they realised that they need to wait for their cars and cannot cut the line anymore.....

Friday was hot... and I really mean hot... even the animals decided to take cover from the sun and the poor people trying to find them on a daytrip.... We saw a few elephants, three rhino’s, some general game... and something that I noticed this weekend is the big amount of Kudu ... I’ve never seen so many Kudu in one day like I did now.

Left the park at about three o’clock to return to Hazyview. Back home, wanted to put my pics on our host’s computer to see if that really was a lion (turned out to be a grass lion ) and that leopard in the tree (a branch leopard ) then suddenly, all my pics gone! There was a virus on his computer and well, that is that....Wanted to cry, but what can you do ... we just formatted the card and tried again the next day. Later on we were very happy that we discovered it in the middle of the trip and not at the end, for the next day’s sightings were great.

Saturday 25 September 2010On Saturday we left Hazyview 10 minutes later, and we certainly realised that in future we must rather stick to the earlier time if you want to go in as day visitors without booking. Our car was about 27th in the queue. When we walked to the gate to try and spot yellow ribbons, we asked one of the empty jeeps how many passengers they were waiting for, they said the bus carries about 52 people. When we heard that, we really thought we’re not going to make it in today.But, we did, as the bus arrived late ....

What a nice wait that hour before the gate opened. It was such nice weather; cool but not cold with a light breeze. All the people in the queue were standing outside their cars and talking with absolute strangers that they have never seen before in their lives, but they were either parked before or after their cars and everybody were excited.

As we went through the gate, the sun were up already and the day begun. We just knew that today it’s going to be a better day. The sun was not as hot as the day before, and with the bit of clouds and breeze, it just felt better.... and true to that our first sighting were a herd of buffalo.Then a rhinoNext up some blue wildebeest and kudusAnd a lone giraffeOn the first bridge, a Corsa bakkie with a load full of visitors (about 7 people) in the back, stopped suddenly on the right hand side of the road behind another vehicle. At first we thought they were looking along the riverbed if they see anything, when the canopy door flew open and people were even hanging out of the little canopy windows. But oh my, the noise they made as they yelled excitedly about what they are seeing....

We realised there must be something big in the river bed, and yes, it was a pride of lions. We sat there with them for a while, while the cars started to pile up on the bridge. After a while, we moved forwards to allow other people to see, and stopped about 50 meter from the big pile up, waiting for our friends to try and get out of the blockade. Suddenly I noticed two things at the same time. Firstly a car speeding at top speed towards us and a lion trying to cross the road in front of me... but surely he was going to be hit by this speeding lady. I started to wave crazily out the window for her to slow down, and luckily she did that just in time. She missed him with about 1.5 m to spare. I couldn’t help myself but just started to tell her straight what I was thinking of her speeding like that. She really felt ashamed, and apologised. She clearly had a huge fright when she realised she almost killed the lion, and I’m sure that will be a lesson for the future.

We left the madhouse behind and continued on the road. Stopped for some nice coffee at Skukuza and while making the coffee spotted a leopard on the other side of the river bed. This was the first time I saw a leopard or lion from a camp while standing and not behind a car window. I knew it was very far off, but it still felt awkward.... unfortunately too far for a picture and the one we got, only had the last piece of the tail... then it was gone... On the way to Nkhulu we saw this:

And then ... a road block ... lions... of course...Had a nice brunch at Nkhulu and continued on to Lower Sabie. On the way we spotted this beautiful NyalaAnd a sleepy rhinoOn approaching Sunset Dam we noticed the huge car roadblock, and thought there was something big there, but it was again ... lions on the other side in the river again. This time, we didn’t even bother to try and get a picture, it was useless. People were rude and we just moved on after spotting them. Some hippos were feeding at Sunset DamThe rest of the day was fairly quiet, with some kudu, zebra and impala on the way. The baboons were grooming each other as well ... We took the Salitjie road, then across the bridge and back into Eloff Street again.

It is almost the end of November and I thought a couple of months ago I would be moving to Hazyview in December But, due to my work commitments, I cannot yet pack up and move. Unfortunately I'll have to stay on till May or June, and if I am really lucky and finish before that time, maybe then I'll move in the April holidays. But I don't want to get my hopes up again, so I'll just have to see and work really, really hard.

Fortunately we (my sons and I) will still be going to Hazyview to visit my SO from the 13th of December till 2 January. At least that's almost 3 weeks, and a lot of daytrips is planned as well as a Park sleep-over or two.

Hallo everyone, we're back from Hazyview and also back at work today. This past 3 weeks went by so quickly, I can hardly believe it. All is still well with SO in Hazyview, just missing us and we all wish we could all stay together again.

Went into the Park a couple of days, not very much, but still had the privilege of being there and waking up every morning seeing the park in the distance.....

Hi everyone, thank you all for reading this TR. I was so surprised when meeting the mites on the road that people actually recognized my forum name

Vlarkvakvrou, you were our first YR sighting and it meant a lot to me, in fact you were our first YR ever spotted in KNP while driving on our own and not with the Angels.

Sharifa and Duke, I always follow your trip reports with great interest and anticipation, it was a privelege

Crested Barbet, would have loved to chat longer, but the car behind me were'nt very accommodating

We also met someone on the way out of Skukuza and again on the low water bridge, I think you said Naoul? I am sorry, my hearing is not the best, but nevertheless, great meeting you too!

Then, Mads, the one day I stayed at home, my SO and son met you. So wish I could have been in the car as well, as it was also the only day lions were spotted by any of our family

On 16 December we drove to Kruger Gate to renew our wildcard, and whilst there, decided to do a quick route from Kruger Gate to Phabeni Gate. This is what we saw on the hour spend in the park:(Only fitting that kudu be the first animals in KNP)

18 December.Today we enter at Phabeni Gate at 05h30 and drove – Skukuza, Afsaal, Voortrekker Road, Pretoriuskop. This was the only night we slept inside the park. It was also the only 2 days that the whole family were together in the park.